Okay so I have more on this Gimli forging of elaborate body jewelry for Legolas. First of all this is only tangentially related BUT I think if they undressed and Legolas had a nipple ring Gimli would faint.
Second, in my reread of two towers Gimli rhapsodizes about the glittering caves for like 6 pages and most specifically this passage
And I’m thinking of the stages of this whole thing. Like Gimli painstakingly crafting magnifying lenses and tiny tongs and clamps like first he has to very carefully create the *tools* to make this fine chain that is somehow soft, delicate and glittering like spider silk set with gems. So he’s like “I have a sexy idea for a gift for you!” And then it’s like 6 months of Gimli just making the GOGGLES he needs to make the chain and Legolas is like 🧐🧐🧐
That part of the book is so special to me. Legolas just listens to him talk on and on and ouh 🥺🥺
"I have a sexy gift idea!!"
I think if Gimli were to forge these chains, he would 100% put all the effort he could into it. Each gem having a meaning (in Dwarrow culture, I personally think that gifting gems / rocks is a romantic sign, and each rock has a meaning sort of like flowers), and each chain made PAINSTAKING gentleness. In the end he looks like an elven chandelier. This would 100% be a proposal gift of some kind given how elaborate the whole thing is. 💙
Maybe a matching headpiece that Legolas wears around on the daily like a wedding ring?
I thank you for sharing, you've given me many ideas and this is so stinking cute!!